Warming up in Boise

Boise wasn’t exactly a planned stop. We had to borrow a plane seat from our amazing friends at Western Aircraft. Since it was nice weather, we hung out for a while. Nice city, accessibly sized for walking.

One of Boise’s notable successful citizens was JR Simplot, who made a fortune in Idaho with a handshake agreement to supply Idaho russet potatoes to Ray Kroc’s McDonalds national franchise. (Kroc had previously been sourcing his potatoes locally in each location.) After that, he made a fortune in Micron Technologies (chips and chips, get it?). He passed away in 2008 at the age of 99, but wanted to leave a legacy behind – JUMP! Jack’s Urban Meeting Place will be a nonprofit place for teaching, meetings, historic tractors and a slide that will spiral from the 5th floor down to the 1st floor. Builders are scratching their heads to realize truly complicated architecture.

: An iconic downtown Boise mural for thought. Love your body? Each other? This building?

: Rural golf – we’ve never been warned not to take aim at the livestock.

: Downtown Boise is pretty lively – our favorite restaurant was Àlavita, a cozy Italian bistro.

: New technology meets old school. Our hostess checking us in on an iPad that was connected to a typewriter keyboard.

: Kites overhead in Cancer Survivor Plaza in Julia Davis Park.

: OK, Boise State fans, you might be taking this stuff a little too seriously.

: Basque people lived in the mountains between France and Spain. Of the 57,000 who live in the US, 15,000 of them live in Boise!

: The Stagecoach Theater brought us the ABRIDGED Complete works of Will – 37 comedies, histories and tragedies. In 97 minutes. We were exhausted but laughing our heads off.